Welcome to the real world. Most small software businesses who offer some small service (say, an ERP software package no one has ever heard of + support) to a small number of companies hire the cheapest devs they can find.

I am in the real world :)

30k per employee with all the on-costs is very low. I suspect that a number of these employees are part time or remote workers in low cost countries.

Nope. All full time, on site. A good working environment counts for one hell of a lot, and the cost of living here is low.